Letter from the Editor, Ann F. Corson M.D.

China continues to seek economic and military ascendancy abroad, mainly through predatory economics and coercive behavior, with the ultimate goal of global preeminence. These opaque and one-sided actions are being played out in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Europe.

It is naive to think that transplant medicine, given its exponential growth in China, exists as an isolated island of moral and ethical practice given the systematic foul play demonstrated by China’s economic, military and diplomatic affairs as well as its unfair trade practices, intellectual property theft, media censorship, and human rights abuses.

After a year of deliberation on evidence and testimony, an independent People’s Tribunal echoed in June what DAFOH and others have been reporting since 2006: the Chinese government has been procuring vital organs unethically from living prisoners of conscience at an alarming rate for almost two decades. The resultant massive international press coverage has added much needed momentum to the avalanche of truth required for the world to act.

Investigators universally agree that Falun Gong adherents are the primary victims of live forced organ harvesting and constitute the majority of China’s prisoners of conscience. At any one time, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong are illegally detained in prisons and black jails where they are invariably subjected to brainwashing and torture while concomitantly being medically tested for retail organ health.

On August 2nd, as a result of the Tribunal’s judgement, the Republican National Convention (RNC) unanimously passed a resolution opposing force organ harvesting in China, adding to previous actions by U.S. politicians to raise awareness of this issue on the international stage.

On July 7, 2019, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced Senate Resolution 274 – “A resolution expressing solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners who have lost lives, freedoms, and other rights for adhering to their beliefs and practices, and condemning the practice of non-consenting organ harvesting, and for other purposes.”

Three years ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H. Res. 343 condemning China’s organ procurement practices.

The RNC Committeeman who led the Convention’s resolution, reiterated the call by others for “American universities, foundations, and doctors” to “disassociate themselves with Chinese medical entities or face penalties for collaborating with them on transplantation research.” Additionally, he called upon “the United States government to follow the lead of Israel and Taiwan and enact laws preventing American citizens from traveling to China for organ transplant surgeries.”

July 20, 2019 marked the twentieth anniversary since the Chinese government began persecuting Falun Gong. Then Chinese leader Jiang Zemin’s intention was to wipe out this faith-based movement within three months. Two decades later, Falun Gong is still practiced by millions inside China as well as in more than one hundred countries around the world. Only in mainland China is it persecuted. Throughout the rest of the world, Falun Gong practitioners are known for the universal principles by which they live: Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.